Buying Hi-Fi Equipment and Media: The Music

Buying recordings is a little like buying food: With experience, you can
tell a lot from appearances, but you won’t definitely know if it’s good until
you’ve tried it—by which time it’s too late to make a return. Recording companies
and stores certainly don’t consider such qualities as lousy sound quality,
poor mastering, and wonton-wrappet-thin disc to represent a legitimate basis
for return. In their eyes, these are not “defects” but simply the norm. Therefore,
you have to do as much as you can for yourself to protect against getting
stiffed. You can, if you know what to look for, learn a great deal about the
recording—whether CD, LP, or tape—just from its wrappings before having to
shell out your money.

(You can also patronize a record store where the staff is knowledgeable
and the return policy is reasonable in the event of real defects. If you
show the courtesy of giving your business to one store, that store is likely
to return the courtesy and treat you as a valued customer. This may sound
old-fashioned but it’s worth a try. Just be sure to pick out a store that’s
worthy of your custom in the first place.)

There are four basic qualities to a recording: (1) the musical performance,
(2) the record technique, (3) manufacturing, and (4) play back. Playback,
of course, is in your hands, but you can probably judge quite a lot about
the other aspects by culling the copy of the jacket.

Regarding the music and its performance, obviously if you already know
the work of the performers, then you’re in a stronger position to decide
whether or not to buy. Otherwise, you have to read reviews in magazines
like Fanfare, listen to the radio, turn to friends, borrow records from
the library. The Absolute Sound has extensive record reviews, and Stereophile
and occasionally JAR also review records. All publish short lists of recommended
recordings. Hi-Fi News & Record Review and Hi-Fi
Answers do the same
for English releases. If you’re lucky, someone in your record store will
have similar taste to yours and will be able to advise you. But hearing
the recording on the store system may tell you very little—most store systems
are pretty awful. And not just awful but often blaring loud enough to tear
off your ears—this does not engender confidence. If you’re very lucky,
you’ll know someone like friend Deep Ears, a repository, seemingly, of
ALL classical disc knowledge.

You may find information somewhere on the jacket about the recording
techniques used, perhaps indicating the number of mikes, and the recording
location. In an on-site rather than studio recording, representational
rather than interpretive recording techniques were probably used. Even
this is no warranty of sound quality—the sound quality can still be manipulated
after it passes through the mikes.

The quality of foreign pressings is often better than American ones, because
over here many of the companies cut corners wherever they can, even for
a third of a cent. On the other hand, it’s best to try to get a pressing
from the same country the master tape is from, because rarely is the original
master tape sent out of the country for pressings. Instead, a copy is sent
that is at least two steps removed from the master tape and therefore noticeably
degraded sonically from the original. Also, this copy tape is used to cut
a new master disc from which the stampers are made, and the -engineers,
in their wisdom, will often re-EQ the tape to their own taste. Whether
the tape is re-equalized or not, cutting systems sound as different from
one to the next as do power amps.

Japanese pressings are often admired by audiophiles as being superior
to the same LP pressed elsewhere. Technically (physically), the pressings
are excellent—warp free, with correctly centered spindle hole, never any
no-fill, and very quiet surfaces. The tonearm, instead of per forming its
usual bob and weave as it travels up and down warps and sideways from the
off-center spindle hole, rides true and steady. But sonically, while these
pressings tend to be very “live,” they are often also considerably brightened
and thinned out, especially in the mid range. They tend, as a rule, to
be less musical and, despite their good points, less enjoyable to listen
to, we find.

There’s speculation that the Japanese actually hear differently than Americans,
and certainly their taste in sound must be different. Even their electronics
and speakers are designed to have this same bright, somewhat antiseptic
sound. However, Japanese audiophiles cannot get their hands on enough quality
American tube equipment, for which they’ll pay a king’s ransom. Apparently
you can pay for an entire trip over there just by taking over a few of
the right pieces of classic American equipment.

In any case, a good rule of thumb, when you have the choice, is to buy
the pressing from the country of origin of the album. For example, an English
pressing of the Beatles will be better than the American pressing. Your
Basic Dave Van Ronk, which is a wonderful album— wonderful folk music and
very good sound—was recorded in England but by Americans who kept the master
tape. The American release, though the actual pressing quality is inferior,
sonically is far better than the English one, which sounds more compressed,
darker, and strangled. Technically, an American pressing may have worse
surface noise, but if the music was recorded here (or the master tape is
here), the sound quality of the American pressing is likely to be better.

Regrettably, there has recently been a big stink by the U.S. record industry
about the sale of foreign pressings in this country. If the industry has
its way, a Stones album, for example, released in the United States could
not be the original—and best—British pressing but would have to be repressed
in America to be sold here. We would lose out on both counts—it would not
be from the country of origin, meaning the master tape would be a copy,
and it would be further degraded by poorer American pressing quality. This
kind of protectionism only protects mediocrity. Music lovers prefer foreign
pressings of foreign recordings be cause they are better. Many even prefer
foreign pressings of domestic recordings because these are technically
better and quieter. Improve American pressing quality, and protectionism
might not be needed.

Musically, some recordings you select to buy are found to be duds — the
only way to have fail-safe success is to stick only with the knowns and
never experiment. When you end up with a record you don’t like, put it
away in a separate box. If you leave it in with the rest of your collection,
you’ll be depressed every time you flip past it. You’ll also be misled
into thinking you have more records than you actually do (at least to listen
to) and this will discourage you from buying others. Keep your collection
well weeded. If the ones you don’t like are segregated, they’re also easy
to show friends for trading or presents—others may like the music even
if you don’t.

Recordings that are sonically duds are more difficult to decide what to
do with. As your system gets better, the record may sound better— with
less distortion being added by your equipment, more music may be revealed.
If you’re already familiar with the music, then the sound quality is more
easily “listened around” and may be tolerable. Or you may have several
versions of the same piece and value this particular one for its special
performance despite poor sound. Some performances are so extraordinary
that poor sound is happily allowed for.

You’re likely to have to return as many as 25 percent of the new recordings
you buy because of flat-out defects like warps, an off-center spindle hole
resulting in wow, or dust and fingerprints. Some people are more fussy
about exchanging defective recordings and others may not want to be as
meticulous. But if you plan to have the records you now own still in good
shape to comfort you in your old age, it figures you may as well start
off with the best you can get and then take good care of them. These may
be the last days of vinyl records, so take full ad vantage while you still
can get them at all.

Some recordings sold as brand new have already been opened, used, and
resealed. These may have been returns, store demos, or sent out that way
from the pressing plant or distributor. Clues are dust and dirt, fingerprints,
maybe faint markings around the spindle hole. Such defects will show up
more clearly under strong light. Our policy is to return these—not only
are you paying full price for used goods but, more important, in the case
of LPs you don’t know the condition of the stylus that rode in those grooves
and what damage it may have done while it was there. Get another copy that’s
new. The recording companies, if they were interested, could readily eliminate
this problem by sealing the spindle hole with foil or the like, the same
as is done for aspirin to prevent tampering. One could then immediately
know whether or not a recording had been played.

LP BUYING

Look for short LP sides, which suggest the music hasn’t been overly compressed
to squeeze the maximum time onto each LP—this squeezes sound quality too.
Many album jackets will provide timing for the individual songs or else
give the overall length per side—a total of about 20 minutes or less is
usually a good sign. The shorter the side and the wider the run-out, the
less distortion the music is subjected to.

Any record that’s intended primarily to be played over the air waves will
have been ipso facto rigorously compressed. The stations want to play the
music at maximum volume to cover a maximum geo graphical area—in an undoctored
recording, the loud passages would be too loud and the soft ones too soft
to hear, so these are electronically compressed or “flattened out” to a
more uniform sound level, making the buds less loud and the softs less
soft.

When you consider that the cost of producing most album jackets far exceeds
the cost of the records they contain, and that the industry standard for
record promotion is about 30 percent of revenues, then it begins to make
more sense that so many records aren’t made well. The money doesn’t go
into production, it goes into marketing.

Record jackets are often emblazoned with terms like “Teldec vinyl” (a
good German brand of virgin vinyl), “audiophile pressing” (who knows what
this is really supposed to mean), “chrome stampers” (which make cleaner
pressings), and the like. But this is all so much window dressing and marketing
unless the master tape itself was excel lent. The purpose of all these
techniques is to reduce manufacturing distortions and therefore more clearly
reveal the sound captured on the master tape; if that wasn’t so good, better
“revelation” won’t improve it.

Going to great lengths to reduce tape hiss, for example, doesn’t mean
all that much as far as the quality and enjoyment of the recording is concerned.
Hiss and background noise on LPs is steady and quite separate from the
music so it can be easily tuned out. As a playback system improves, the
clicks and pops on recordings matter less—they’re like the quiet rustlings
and coughs of an audience. The music-to-noise ratio is much better on a
good system and the music becomes more compelling.

Far more important in manufacturing are such things as the basic quality
of the pressing technique, the vinyl, the stampers and how worn they are
allowed to become before replacement. Stampers should at most be used for
only a few thousand pressings. Imperfect pressing can cause the gaps or
potholes in the vinyl known as no-fill. Many records are made far too thin,
which means not only that they warp easily but also that distortion increases
when they are played. The stylus dragging in the groove actually sets up
a vibration that is picked up by the cartridge and amplified right along
with the music. With heavier vinyl, such resonances are less easy to set
up and more effectively damped if they are started. The mid-1970s oil crisis
encouraged record companies to cut LP thickness by one third; being patriotic,
they continue their conservation efforts to this day.

Proper storage immediately after pressing is essential to prevent warps
and must be maintained throughout the distribution chain. A thick piece
of vinyl, a substantial jacket, loose shrink wrap (a quarter inch or so
larger than the jacket all around), and a quality rice-paper sleeve all
help to protect the record. Overly tight shrink wrap is likely to warp
the record. Wakefield is widely recognized as being one of the best American
pressing plants. Europadisc is also highly regarded for both mastering
and pressing.

At times it may require real perserverance to get finally a clean copy.
CBS, for one, is notorious for its poor pressings. The Smithsonian has
some marvelous recordings — including authentic renditions of Duke Ellington
and Jelly Roll Morton music — but more than a dozen copies of a particular
album (at that time pressed by CBS) had to be exchanged before finally
finding one not smeared all over with finger prints! The then head of Smithsonian
Records down in Washington, laconically responded that fingerprints are
a normal part of the manufacturing process!!! (He’s not there anymore and
CBS has decided to get out of the LP business altogether—it will be releasing
only CDs from now on. How well it manages to press these, considering that
CDs are far more demanding than LPs, will be most interesting to see.)

Pressing quality overall does seem to be improving, whether in response
to the years of complaint from the underground press or in response to
the challenge of CDs—either way, we’re happy.

If you can’t get a new copy because your defective one is the last available
and the album is going out of print—an increasingly common problem—then
you have to balance your desire for the music with the seriousness of the
defect. A record that’s just dirty on the surface can be cleaned with a
VP! or similar quality vacuum cleaner.

An off-center spindle hole can be a serious problem because you will always
hear the wow as the record turns out of round. No record is ever perfectly
cut relative to the spindle hole—some minor error is in evitable because
the hole is punched after the record is pressed—but there are times when
the error is significant.

Warps vary in their degree of severity—some records look like potato chips.
The least disturbing kind of warp is one with very shallow, long curves
so the tonearm rides smoothly up and down over it without too much distortion.
Small sharp warps tend to be more audible. Edge warps usually affect the
music only at the beginning of the record. The easiest way to spot warps
Is to put the record on the turntable and squint along the edge of the
rotating record. Then also look straight down onto it and look for quaverings
in your face’s reflection. Also put the stylus down on it and watch the
movement of the tonearm, both up and down and from side to side.

The importance of scratches must be decided on a case-by-case basis. Surface
noise, ticks and pops from poor vinyl, and even no-fill, are the least
objectionable of the manufacturing defects. They are clearly distinct from
the music, and though they certainly add noise, they don’t distort the
music.

Buying Used Records

You often run across used records being sold at tag sales, flea markets,
in secondhand stores. As many of these are out of print, and with more
LPs becoming unavailable all the time, used records can be a wonderful
source of real finds. With a little skill, you can develop a sense of the
overall record quality by knowing what to look for. A dead giveaway is
whitish powdery dust embedded in the grooves—these records have generally
been “re-grooved” by a worn or damaged stylus acting as a record eraser.
Or they may have just been played over and over again, so that the grooves,
which were once like the Rockies, are now as worn as the Appalachians.
Nothing will help records in this condition—neither a VPI cleaning, a treatment
of Last, nor anything else. Buy only if the music is a must-have—it’ll
hold you over until you may be lucky enough to find a better copy. Unfortunately,
some unscrupulous people treat the records with a light coating of oil
to conceal the white haze and restore the surface to apparent newness.
Watch out.

Often, the only problem with a record may be that it’s dirty, in which
case a good cleaning will leave you with an almost-new copy. Fingerprints
are a sign that the record was carelessly handled, which suggests the grooves
may also be somewhat damaged by a worn stylus. The prints can be cleaned
off with a stronger cleaning solution and your record cleaner. Faint marks
around the spindle hole, if extensive, also indicate sloppy handling—you
should be able to match up hole and spindle without too much trouble if
you’re being careful.

Scratches may or may not matter, depending on their depth. Sur face scratches
don’t penetrate down into the groove so they need not be a problem sonically,
though here again their presence indicates carelessness, which may manifest
itself in other groove damage. Deep scratches obviously affect the sound.

As more and more people make the changeover to CDs and foolishly throw
out their LPs, there will be all the more riches for LP addicts to pick
up at great prices—many of them long out of print and available no other
way. Used records are definitely a resource to investigate.

PRERECORDED TAPE BUYING

Prerecorded tape is the most ephemeral medium and generally has the lowest
fidelity. Recognize it as being primarily a convenience source. Nonetheless,
it is definitely worthwhile to seek out quality tapes, because these will
not only sound better but will last longer be fore print-through develops
or the cassette mechanisms malfunction. Some record stores estimate that
close to half the prerecorded cassettes sold are already defective in one
way or another at the time of sale. If you get one of these, return it
without hesitation for a replacement. Make sure before you buy that the
cassettes aren’t stored in a way that will damage them—for example, in
direct sunshine or near some other source of heat.

Nakamichi, Monster Cable, and Chesky Records Realtime cassettes are all
considered good.

CD BUYING

CDs are as subject to warping as LPs. Quality control has been steadily
slipping as the demand has been increasing and also as acceptance has been
established—it is no longer so necessary for CDs to prove them selves “perfect.”
Quality varies not only from label to label and title to title, but also
from disc to disc. There are indications that the thickness of the silvering
has an important effect on sound—or more precisely stated, a thicker backing
reduces the amount of “error” that then needs “correction.”

Undoubtedly, CDs, like LPs, are being sold as new when they are in fact
used. This is far more difficult to identify than with LPs, as overall
sound will be degraded as error correction copes with the micro-scratches
but there may be no actual ticks and pops to hear. Return defective CDs
without fail or the manufacturers may allow quality to deteriorate further.

It is tricky to predict how a CD will sound because there are so many
possible combinations of analog and digital involved. Some discs are marked
with the three-position SPARS (Society of Professional Audio Recording
Studios) code, which identifies their lineage. The letters used are A and
D for analog and digital. The first position identifies if the original
recording was analog or digital; the second position specifies whether
the original recording was mixed to a digital or analog recorder; and the
third position specifies whether the recording was then mixed to an analog
tape recorder or was directly digitally transferred into 16-bit/44.1 KHz
format. So an AAD code indicates that the source was analog tape, mixed
to an analog tape recorder, and then transferred to a digital master.

However, how much you can do with this knowledge is question able. Some
say an analog original transferred to digital sounds better than a recording
made digitally from start to finish. This was probably absolutely true
with the awful early digital recorders. The present digital recorders are
still pretty awful, so an analog original may give you a better first step.
There are still so many variables in the playback that it is hard to establish
definite judgments on the recordings. The Opus 3 CD samplers will give
you an idea of what a good CD sounds like. These, incidentally, are digitalized
versions of original analog master tapes.

The other problem unique to CDs is that some will load into certain players
and some will not. Players are being made cheaper and cheaper and their
quality control becomes poorer and poorer. Reliability is worsening. Combine
this with imperfect discs and a fair number of them end up being rejected
by the players.